andjules

@disland, yes, the standard size fits fine. When I fly, I put my 67" ski in a traditional ski bag (with a few short pieces of pipe insulation around some of the edges), and put all of that inside this bag + vest ++ and that works fine. Flown it to Florida, Spain and Thailand. It's starting to look a little worse for wear but I'd say I got my $40 out of it.

I've posted this padded Stage alpine ski bag before. Not perfect, not a cool brand, but damn-good value for money ($40). 175 cm = ~69"

This thread: opinions: high data: low

I'm really enjoying mine as well. For any Canucks here, they were also the cheapest pro-level glove I could find from any Canadian shop (I bought from Shuswap).

@Tom351 Wow! If you're late and pull all the way to the ball, you better get your S-turn down pat!

I've never skied it (hope to someday), there is a ski club outside of Budapest, Hungary; their site is as narrow as any I've seen (and not long @ ~1650') You can search Facebook for slalom.hu and see some videos like this one: https://facebook.com/slalom.hu/videos/1443466692426862/

@BoneHead: what does running the slalom course @ 32 mph on jumpers have to do with plopping over a ramp? Exactly zero of the skills, experience, body mechanics and physics translate between the two. That's like telling someone they can't try riding a four-wheeler ATV until they can ride a unicycle.

Wow, strange diversity of opinion on this. @bassfooter I fall into the 'go for it' camp, given that you describe yourself as limber with no back or knee issues. One major caveat: make sure you've got a reasonably good coach/instructor. Your first plop over a ramp on a pair of old-school 72-78" jumpers @ 26-28mph — assuming you are an experienced and comfortable skier after a good dry-land lesson — should be a pretty boring experience. Except for the mental game, it's akin to sliding on ice in running shoes for about 1/2 second, followed by what feels like the equivalent of hopping off a kitchen counter (yes, the ramp is higher, but you've got forward movement and big skis which make the landing comparatively softer). If that description doesn't scare you (it shouldn't if you're spry and athletic, it should if you're arthritic and slow), go for it. Becoming an advanced distance jumper is a completely different question. At 58, you should think hard about the risk/reward... the road to jumping 100'+ is usually littered with a few bad falls that can be hard even on a 15-25 year-old body. But they generally won't be on your first plop over the ramp.

Love those superman-style TWLBBs!

One development since the original discussion: Broadcom's L5 GPS chip has made its way into the Xiaomi Mi 8 smartphone, with some hope that the next round of Samsung phones may also incorporate it. It's the first time we've had 30cm/1' GPS accuracy in a consumer smartphone.

@jayski I know @Horton has made some efforts down in the states, but I'd love to see some kind of flexible database of public courses. At least in Ontario & Quebec, we have such a strong public-lake/cottage culture. I've been fortunate to find a lake with a course and informal club, but over the years as I looked to rent or buy a cottage, there was no where I could go to find out which lakes have courses or active, passionate skiers (and who the 'ambassadors' might be). I suspect wakeboarders would also love to know which lakes have a wakeboard-friendly culture, and who to connect with.

When I dreamt of robots with guns, paintball and slalom courses never occurred to me. This is awesomely creative (and perhaps ridiculously impractical, but hey, here's to innovation).

I'll be the contrarian: I don't think it's an important upgrade. There's nothing wrong with it, of course, but if you're dedicated to having fun and being a casual buoy chaser, then do that: have fun! If you have any energy and money left, spend it on getting better. Get some coaching. Sounds like you already ski in different environments (wind, boats, etc.); this makes you a more robust skier. Worrying about PP vs ZBox vs ZO, or the minute differences between two boats makes you a more sensitive skier, more frustrated when one little element (boat, fin, wind, etc.) is just a tiny bit off. BallOfSpray is a great place to come and get thinking about how to be a better skier. However, as a community of passionate ski nerds, it's also a place where you can come and see people arguing about very tiny things: the difference in wakes between one boat model year and the next, the difference between one setting on zero off and the next, the difference of a couple of thousandth of an inch in a fin setting. We have a tendency to make these differences sound like the difference between riding a child's tricycle vs a 1200cc sport bike, but they're not that big. For folks trying to improve their PB from 2 @ -39 to 3 @ -39, they're important discussions, for sure. But I wonder for many of us if the investment of energy and attention in these tiny factors provides a return in terms of happiness and satisfaction. I wonder if they make us more robust or more sensitive skiers. It sounds like you're having fun. -15/-22 @ 30/32mph is good skiing. You can't do it without getting a lot of things right. Sounds like you're having fun... keep having fun! You can do that behind PP classic, Stargazer, ZBox or ZO. Hey, we grew up doing it behind hand-driven outboards.

So interesting that he slaloms RFF and wakeboard LFF. I wonder if you sampled a 100 skiers, just as they were learning to wakeboard, and got them to experiment, how many would choose the opposite foot forward?

I share the temptation and excitement around this idea. That said, after a little reflection, it's important to balance this against some rationalism: 1. How does this work for the jumpers? once or twice a year we'd like to change the specific conditions you train for in your already-incredibly-dangerous sport. We'd like to make it even more dangerous, and practice for this once-or-twice-a-year thrill-fest requires you to find a specially-built ramp. 2. Yes, waterskiing needs some innovative ideas to grow the sport and build excitement. That said, if you're not a hardcore skier, e.g. a new spectator... is it really that much more exciting to see a guy go 304' vs 254'? It's already an incredibly exciting sport to watch. Except to a few of us, I'm not sure it adds much. Imagine once a year, there was a NASCAR race with the usual drivers, but they have to bring a rocket-powered car with skinny tires. It would be really interesting to some die hard fans, not particularly interesting to others, arguably financially silly, but above all... irresponsibly dangerous. NASCAR is exciting enough. You don't need to work harder to set the athletes up for failure.

@DW it was promoted it on FB well in advance. I think they did the trip last year, too, and I think @Thomas_Gustafson is hoping to make it a yearly opportunity.

Wow. Interestingly, no ski bar or tow ring?!

@Horton you're unnecessarily tough on yourself. 2 @ -39 may be your very-good-day-average but your one-time 3 @ -39 counts.

You asked about best-looking (not best performing). 1963 Keaton Classic(thx @Hallpass) http://www.keatonboat.com/images/KeatonGathering07/cc20.jpg 1990s Boesch 680 1955 Correct Craft Atom http://www.woodyboater.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/John-Baas-in-first-inboard.jpg 1993 Correct Craft Ski Nautique Paragon And my home province favourite (what everyone in Ontario and Quebec cottage-country skied behind): 1990s J-Craft

@oneski a) would you continue to have sex if you knew it wasn't going to be as great as that one super-amazing time? b) would you continue to drink beer if you knew you could never get another bottle of that super-amazing craft beer that you can't find anymore? c) Jeff Rodgers is amazing, but I'm pretty sure he's 51, not 57. Still...

I sold a 2000 last summer - in Ontario - on the private market for under $20k, but it wasn't in (nearly) as nice shape from the pics. Of course the marina wants their profit, and it's Ontario cottage country (pricey), it still seems pretty aggressive as an asking price.

@C5Quest http://www.skiall6.com/articles/chris-rossi/70-the-power-triangle

Others who know more about the Monza can chime in, but my instinct is that a Senate is not going to feel at all similar. Yes a Senate may have similar materials, and yes a Senate is what you'd typically recommend to an older guy skiing aggressively at slower speeds, but I think you'll find it rides way higher in the pre-turn/turn compared with a Monza and will feel radically different. It's a great ski, but I don't think it's a similar ski. I don't have experience with it but you might want to check out the newer HO omni.

I recently upgraded to Ryan Dodd's Stealth gloves. Simple, effective. They "feel durable" as heck, but check back in a year or two to see if it's true.